Arrow storm birds come back to the ‘Scillies’ but it keeps paying attention to whether the rats stay away

‘PFGGGGG, pffgg, pffgg.« Safe from his hole, hidden in a dune, gives a bird answers to the sound that John Peacock is playing on his phone. » He says something like: Go away, don’t bother me! I already have a nest here.  » Peacock, volunteer coordinator for a project to protect sea birds, thinks it is great to hear. « Magical. We do so much for it and then you get this back. »

There is a Nordic arrow storm bird in the Hol, a bird species that was almost extinct twelve years ago on the Scilly Islands. While this is only one of the two places in England where the bird lands to build a nest. Now there are again hundreds of nests on St. Agnes, one of the inhabited islands of the small archipelago beyond the southwestern tip of Cornwall.

Nature organizations on the ‘Scillies’ do a lot to protect the sea birds and to increase their numbers. One of their projects has saved the Nordic arrow storm bird. At the end of 2013, all rats were eradicated on St. Agnes and Gugh, an uninhabited neighboring island where you can walk from St. Agnes at low tide. The rats ate the eggs from the nests of the arrow storm birds and the storm birds. Both species lay one egg once a year, so their population suffered heavily from the rats.

Trace

Spread throughout the islands, volunteers placed approximately every fifty meter boxes with rat poison, says Peacock. There was no escaping for the rats. « There was no more rat within seven days. » They received help from a project manager from New Zealand, where they have a lot to do with invasive animal species.

Only watching is whether the rats really stay away. They can swim large pieces and travel with boats. « A few years ago, one of the garbage collectors saw a rat of his boat jumping on the shore. He killed him with the first piece of steel he could find. An old golf club, » says Louise Simmonds. She lives on St. Agnes and is one of the volunteers who check the island for rat tracks every few weeks. « And earlier this year there was a big alarm because we were found in chicken food. We immediately went full, with dozens of new traps and extra inspections. »

SIMMONDS walks through the dunes on Gugh, through ‘her’ control area. The rare beach herb that grows here is in bloom, with pink flowers everywhere. Every few hundred meters Simmmonds opens a plastic box in the grass with capital letters on: « Gif, don’t touch. » There is no real poison in it, only some mountain poo and a small block of candle washing mixed with chocolate. It is intended as a bait and she looks at whether there are traces of rat legs or nodding. But all cubes are clean and smooth.

The Stormvogels populations and Nordic arrow storm birds may have grown thanks to the eradication of one of their natural enemies, the total number of sea birds is decreasing hard on the scillies. A bird count in 2023 showed that the number had fallen by almost 20 percent compared to the previous measurement in 2015. Compared by thirty years ago, the population had even declined by almost half. The numbers of crested students, three gulls and Zilvermeeuwen fell by tens of percent. Some seabirds are now on the Red List of most endangered species in England.

Giant sharks

That decrease is based on a complex row of causes, says John Peacock, from tourism and fishing to climate change. « Tourism is the most sensitive, because at least 80 percent of our income comes from there. » To protect the birds, a few of the uninhabited Scilly Islands are forbidden terrain for visitors, but not all boats adhere to it during the busy summer months. The dogs that come with tourists can also disturb the birds.

Some residents thought that rats had just as much rights to be here as the birds

The group of volunteers who check the island for rat tracks.

The rising temperature of the seawater around the scillies also has negative consequences for sea birds. The eel -like sand muscle is an important food source for them, and it moves through the warmer water away from the shallow grounds at the scillies, where the birds can easily catch them. « We always had three gulls here, but they have disappeared, » says Peacock. He was born on St. Agnes and sees climate change happening under his nose. « As a child we went on the sea with a rowing boat and then we saw giant sharks swimming with their mouth to catch plankton. I haven’t seen them for at least five years. » The inhabitants of the scillies can do little against these types of changes.

Underground sewerage

The nature conservation clubs that were involved in exterminating the rats on St. Agnes also want to try that on the other islands. They hope to start in 2027. But it will become more difficult than on St. Agnes. Among other things because the other inhabited islands are larger and all residents have to cooperate. Even in houses, it is sometimes necessary to make rat poison, which results in risks for pets. Residents must use special garbage containers where rats cannot reach, and volunteers are needed to keep an eye on whether they are not coming back.

On St. Agnes it also took a lot of effort to convince everyone, Louise Simmonds remembers. « Some residents thought that rats had just as much rights to be here as the birds. And our rats had good, they looked healthy and shiny. » But it was also possible to make them view other disadvantages of rats. « Tenants of holiday homes were also not happy if there was suddenly a rat in their kitchen. » Only on the largest island, St. Mary’s, is probably the eradication not to be done, says John Peacock: « There they have underground sewerage and the rats never have to see the daylight. »

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